How to Build an Email List: Top 3 Methods

Email communication is the best way to take your visitor interactions to a personal level. But why do you need personal interactions with your visitors? What are the benefits? How do you get their email address in the first place? How do you continue with these interactions without losing their interest levels? These are the basic questions that any new comer to email list building would ask. Let’s see the answers now.

There are many different reasons people surf the web – casual browsers, information seekers, buyers, sellers, surfers, curiosity seekers, etc. Not all of them are your target audience but they still can land on your site, with or without invitation. As a blogger, your agenda is to cater to your target audience and capture their attention in such a way that they keep coming back to your site. The best way to do that is by asking the visitors to subscribe to your blog. With that being said though, you have to give your readers something valuable in return. I see opt in offers everyday with offers that I can tell were put together in 10 minutes, and only put up to get an e-mail address to their list. I commend and respect anyone for putting in the hard work to build a site, learn the ins and outs of internet marketing, try to create a living online, etc, but I do not respect the people who are only here to make money. If you’re going to put your name out there and expect people to support you, you need to be giving away valuable information to support them on their journey as well. To get someone to opt in to your list, give them something valuable in return. Don’t just whip together any old content and throw it up there. Put some work into it, and make it worthwhile to your readers. I promise you that not only will your readers appreciate it and keep coming back, but you will feel good about what you’re putting out there for people. Yes, you may be trying to make an income online, and that’s all good… but you have to go about it the right way. Now, onto a few ways to start building your list

Now that you understand the importance of email lists, the next step is to discover ways to start building your list. The simplest list building activity is adding a subscribe button (and subscription form) to your site. Any visitor who wants to subscribe voluntarily, will do so when you have a subscribe option on all of your content. However, 95% of visitors need more persuasion to become subscribers. People don’t share their personal email ids without a good reason and the onus of providing this good reason falls on us bloggers.

Freebies: The most popular list building method is by offering free stuff in exchange of the visitors’ email addresses. People just love freebies, no matter who they are and what they do. If you are offering something free, they will be more than willing to become your subscribers. If you are a smart blogger, you’ll make sure that your freebie is highly relevant to your blog niche and build a list that is filled with your target audience. And remember, just because this is free doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be high quality. Everything you put your name on should be to the highest quality you are capable of, your readers deserve it!

Downloadable Content: Remember, most visitors come in search of information. If they like the information you have on your site, they are more likely to take the ‘bait’ of additional information on the same topic. Many bloggers offer downloadable content as subscriber enticements. This type of list building is slower when compared to the first method but gives a more reliable email list to bloggers. Downloadable content can be an eBook, a video, an infographic or even a Power Point Presentation. These are easy to create and not too costly, which is ideal for bloggers on a budget.

Build your list with a contest/giveaway, promoted through Facebook Advertising.

Social Network List Building: Social networks are the places where your target audience exists. People are more likely to discover your blog through the social media, than the traditional search engine method. So, it makes sense to use your social presence as a list building exercise too. Seek out others who are in the same niche as you… reach out, comment, be helpful, add value to them and their readers. This will help to build your presence and your following! Along with building your presence though, there are a couple of different ways to immediately start building your list through Social Media. You can do this with paid traffic, or you can implement once you have started to attract followers. A great way to immediately attract people to your list is to create a sweepstakes/giveaway. To get a lot of eyes on it immediately, promote through a Facebook ad (an article will be up to help with that in the near future… check back right here for the link). A lot of people give away things such as amazon gift certificates, starbucks cards, etc… and while this will most likely get you a lot of signups, many times they will not be. There are many tricks to target your ad to get the right types of eyeballs on it, but your list still won’t be as targeted as if you were to give away something that is directed towards your niche. For instance, if it’s internet marketing related you could give away a desired program, plugin, graphics, subscription, etc that would otherwise cost someone money.

The other popular list building methods are – Referrals, advertisements, promotions, solo ads, etc. Always remember, your email list is the ticket to guaranteed revenues. The Bigger the list, the bigger the revenues. But please remember, no matter what method you use you have to make sure that your content is valuable and your number one concern is teaching / helping others.